Melvin Konner

Melvin Konner is the name of the author and subject of Becoming a Doctor. Trained and educated as a practicing university anthropologist, Konner decided in his mid-thirties to leave his teaching career and enter medical school to become a physician. He reflects back on his life and cannot remember ever not wanting to be a doctor, which was thought to be proof of his "motivation to study medicine." In his last year of high school, Konner volunteered on the pediatric surgery ward of Kings County Hospital. Although he had medical school applications to complete, Konner studied anthropology at Harvard. By twenty-five he had earned his Ph.D. and opted to teach anthropology for six years as a Harvard professor until he became a medical student.

Konner considers this book a "compensatory pause" which is like a brief rest in the heart cycle after "premature ventricular contraction," or...